lorenzo marvin in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture. earlier today president obama said that he wants to close down guantanamo bay promise to do this back in two thousand and eight but the prison remains open because republicans blocked him in congress will he be able to overcome republican fears and shutter one of the most shameful symbols of america's turned to the dark side during the so-called war on terror i'll ask our panelists and the night's big picture politics and all in just a model also all we've known for years the fossil fuels are killing our planet our leaders in washington have sat back and watched the world current now one new mexico county has taken matters into its own hands and banned oil extraction within

its borders this is the future of the fight against global warming and believe it or not the united states could learn a thing or two about social justice from bangladesh i'll tell you why i feel the. need to know this at a surprise press conference earlier this morning president obama told reporters that he wants to close the guantanamo bay detention center think it is critical for us to understand the guantanamo is not necessary to keep america safe. it is expensive. it is inefficient. is. hurts us in terms of our international standing it lessens cooperation with our allies on counterterrorism efforts it is a recruitment tool for extremists. it needs to be closer than senator

obama vowed to show you can't do. in his initial presidential run in two thousand and eight but three months into his second term as president it remains open in as controversy as ever at least two thirds of guantanamo's detainees have now joined in on a hunger strike that a small group of prisoners started back in february to protest the living conditions and demand an end to their indefinite detention although the president has tried to close that facility or otherwise change the rules governing detainees treatment those attempts were blocked repeatedly by republicans in congress forcing him to continue the policies of the bush administration in two thousand nine hundred been issued an executive order that demanded that the prison close in a year but ended up postponing that closure window by six months and when congress blocked him again for intents and purposes frogs and toads and purposes get no remains open indefinitely while the population of detainees has significantly decreased during his time in the oval office president obama has functionally

continued his predecessor's system of military tribunals for guantanamo prisoners at guantanamo bay prison is an ongoing stain on the reputation of our nation a nation the prides itself on upholding basic human rights so it's in a time our government took a stand for our most fundamental values and close down guantanamo bay let's ask our guests absence big picture politics pale. for tonight's big picture politics panel i'm joined by neil mccabe conservative commentator editor of the guns and patriots newsletter k. steiger managing editor of the ross story and bob parks member of the black leadership that work at project twenty one and senior video producer at m r c t the welcome to all of us on the city do good to have you with us. first of all neil do you think the president serious here that he's going to throw enough political

capital into this that maybe he can get the republicans to back down the list a lot of reasons why get mode. detention was a bad idea but i guess he was for that stuff previously it's always been opposed to get yeah well when you when you issue an executive order and then you rescind it you're kind of not i only saw you didn't resent it he was not able to get the funding from congress to close gitmo he was not able to maintain this case congress no he was not able to get the republicans to stop obstructing absolutely everything tries to do as a way of trying to make his presidency look like a failed president when did the republicans take over congress they have been running the only eleven the the obama administration president obama had thirteen weeks out of the last four and a half years when he could actually get things through congress and then after thirteen weeks into the first year of his administration scott brown got sworn into the sonnet and then the republicans had forty votes and they were able to block everything that's been done in those thirteen weeks no he was not successful in

closing it all well i think fifty nine votes and control the house fifty nine votes in the senate and control the house is a pretty good chance. it is not it's better than it has and what do you have it has and not one of these republicans so terrified of it seems to me like they're all these frightened little oh my goodness they're they're like superman they mostly kryptonite yeah and i agree with you i think that obama is serious about closing guantanamo bay i think he has been theories about it but he's been blocked at every turn in trying to do so i thought it was really interesting that eighty six of be prisoners at guantanamo bay. the charges have been dropped against them and yet they are not able to leave guantanamo bay again because the funding is not available when our process can't work without congress authorized and i think if we had eighty six prisoners these charges had been dropped and they'd been indefinitely detained in america we would find that extremely intense and horrifying and i'm not really sure why. guantanamo bay should be held to this

standard that when you know we obviously have a commitment to due process and these people haven't been charged. with any kind of crime this is so destructive to the united states of america is it really such great value to the republican party that they're willing to damage the reputation of america and to blow up our basic principles of due process so you can blame the republicans the republicans who made us a campaign promise that he was going to close this place without doing some basic homework like maybe figure out where you want to put them because he had them or your arguments about if memory serves no country wants them where home countries don't want their so if you only have jails here we've got over the way you guys are to see who is in right now most don't want them either although not so very actually during private prisons all over this country is under water to take these directories roberts they had those debates and at the end of the day nobody there

was a plan senator dick durbin of illinois wanted to basically move the detainees to a facility in illinois but that was sort of that was sort of squashed as sort of in the program in the senate by republicans and i think you see this and there are in definitely some conservative democrats as well who are who are main opposed to closing one town and i think it's such a hot topic political issue that people are really afraid to stand up for the rights of people who you know. are the untouchables and i think that's really unfortunate what do you do i mean if if if you knew that there were no charges against them but you also knew that they were dangerous to america that through even maybe even through no fault even if through no fault of their own they know i've become radicalized is that a concern are you going do you to default of the fact that america has been holding them for over a decade are you still in the usa what to say it's important up if we were to

arrest you and you know you in jail for twenty years under false pretenses right and you finally get out should we all be afraid that maybe going to be a little p.o.d. at society and therefore we shouldn't go out there we're saying we let people out when we figured out that they were innocent given the recidivism is the number of people who have been released. from get more already. well that's how many of how many. you know i mean where's your number they should we just talk with one of the three dying but let's have an adult conversation cards up if these people are dangerous to the united states we should be aware of it and we should discuss it and they're not there they're don't know that we have innocent people because the bush administration was offering a five thousand dollars body which is like you know ten years' worth of income in afghanistan to turn in your brother and walk away you don't like and remember too that the the answer to get mo became drones because they did want to kill they don't want to wrap guys up anymore they just you know you said that on going to

school and then at least at least there but you might find some agreement with me anyway and are currently eighty two federal bacon's judicial positions and i mean this is become a really serious problem john roberts wrote a letter year and a half ago saying to the republicans basically stop blocking every nomination the president obama has the big one of course is the first circuit court the first circuit court of appeals based in washington d.c. is the one that is like those stepping off point to to the supreme court a typically and b. is where cases like e.p.a. cases basically anything to the federal agencies are decided there and right now you've got four republican appointees and three democratic appointees and three empty seats and so the republicans are running the first circuit court so they can keep knocking down labor laws they could knock down environmental laws president obama had an appointee for that court for two years that i would draw about what three four weeks ago i mean kay what are what what is the deal here at what point

do the republicans back down or back down is maybe even the wrong phrase at what point do they do what the constitution asks them to do and advised good set on judicial nominees i mean i agree with you i have to wonder if this couldn't be an intentional strategy to you know there's a lot of work that needs to be done in the court. and as long as those seats aren't being held you know they can't handle the case that they might otherwise be able to handle and i have to wonder if this isn't a strategy to make government seem like it's not working because they're withholding necessary personnel to make it work that's interesting the republicans i mean you know fema with brownie was a classic example break it and then say oh it's broken i think i'm more inclined to think frankly that they're just thinking that they can hold out until two thousand and sixteen get a republican president in and now instead of instead of eighty two federal bacon

judicial positions they'll be like a hundred and they can just stack the entire court with republicans but you know you don't want to go along with a case three things strategy and we'd have a paralyzed court system for decades as the quote goes have consequences now if memory serves during the bush administration when the democrats controlled the house and the senate and judicial nominations were being held up that was called true to some it was called dissent it was called. but i would if there was not happening or anything at all most of them are using the phrase strategically with your guy in there over obstructionism the. local you know that it's playing the politics it's always going to be that way during the bush administration not just my personal but you can't why no but during the bush administration and democrats in the block judicial nominees they always gave a reason it was usually you know this guy is a little to the right or roberts is your honour's george george bush harriet miers

withdrew her nomination george bush throughout the nation i understand one after it was a fire started in the right it was bill kristol who took down harriet miers it was not a democrat it was people on the right conservative review or whatever the publication is you know they were saying you know the area of miers you get in there was usually about are conservative but but the democrats always said here's the reason . republicans are simply saying we're not going to do it because you put your suggested him we'll i think if your problem is if your real concern is case loads then the president should start nominating republicans and they would get through i mean if your concern is empty seats i mean this is what you suppose as this is this is the solution to everything just given to the republican is here is our because it's not about our it's all because we're no tom it's all about politics i vote because i thought like you said consequence of this is not about devil as it was a house or cliff that whatever the democrats got more votes for how we still don't know they are the white house they took the senate i think any republican senators could advise and consent they'd give them eighty two names that would pass tomorrow

yeah it's all in our songs that we will have we'll have to come back to this very i'm sorry more of tonight's big picture politics where let me let me i want to know we're going to let me ask you a question. here on this network is what we're having the debate we have our knives out. the truth is this time it was a space thing there again we're in a situation where the i don't want me to talk about the name and. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture.

here is mitt romney trying to figure out. of that thing that we americans call. i'm sorry i missed the guy who cares enough. but. you know what. here's. one featuring a liberal the current. voters. are going to look at you to distract us from what you and i should care about because they're profit driven industry that will stick garbage because that breaking news i'm happy martin and we're going to break that it's. looking pretty down the field that you won't find it here if you're looking for

relevant stories unique perspective from tom my skin's. while going back for tonight's politics panel i'm joined by neil mccabe case uyghur and bob parks let's get back to it last week's garment factory collapse outside bangladesh killed at least three hundred sixty two people and hundreds remain missing bangladesh is the world's second largest exporter of garments its workers mainly about thirty seven dollars a month or so workers have found brand and clothing from bennington and children's place among others in the rubble this is the face of free trade apparently is it really worth it and perhaps more importantly bob. the guy who owned and built this factory in violation of building codes. is also a local politician dale wright and they've frozen the assets of the five companies

the five factories that were operating there we still don't know even at least i don't the name of the company that owns that plant down in west texas that blew up you know don't we have something to learn from bangladesh or i think of course one of the things that really bothers me most. when a lot of these things happen that transcends politics it's the lack of conscience with certain people with certain business owners i mean you can take advantage of lower wages in another country but put a few more exits in i mean how hard is that and trying to take care of people doesn't cost in the grand scheme of things i'm at least with our dollars the simple things to upgrade building codes. what happened there was beyond unconscionable and there was no there's no excuse and i don't think there's anything political but it certainly seemed to as it's just.

if you want to call it greed yeah i think it's i think it's even worse than that. you know book i wrote called what would jefferson do is talking about how you know the the slave owners of our era look there are slaves in the face and we haven't ended slavery in america we have simply explored i'm curious how you respond the problem with that is we were torn right now i mean obviously we're not we're not talking slavery slavery ok but it's something that isn't close and we're all we're on the stuff exactly and that's where the problem's going to lie because in this country people are used to getting cheaper goods they have to be made somewhere would you want to made in a place like bangladesh or do you want the made in prison camps in some communist countries like north carolina where we used to you know used to be the textile capital in the states well until well now we're going to get we'll start getting a little clinton signs now and. we're going to just highlight how little we

actually know about so many consumer products that we buy and i find that to be really troublesome and i think if you want to have consumer goods that are ethical you have to incentivize them properly you know i saw something today about you know labeling of energy efficient cars. actually turns conservatives off so you have to incentivize things in the right way you have to give people a good option you know i thought when i when i read about elizabeth klein's work of her dress you know she talked about how in one thousand nine hundred american families spent fifteen percent of their household incomes on clothing today that around four percent so i think it just really shows that there is a high cost to consumer goods when it comes to maybe maybe for l.e.d.s. low low wattage light bulbs we should have one this is packaged uses very little energy and then another one with

a different color so it looks like the differences use lots and lots about it ever gets older liberals and conservatives what do you think it's almost like you know the warning labels on cigarettes almost become like a death fetish for people actually there have been some studies indicating that there were certain subgroups particular teenagers that it's actually you know you could do this driving fast about it without a seat and i'm kind of i've always been sort of a bread and roses labor guy and i think well you know there was this strike up in massachusetts where the women in the factories went on strike and they said we're not only striking for bread we also want to make enough so that we can have roses also and and so much of our you know labor laws are actual progress and worker safety is in the aftermath of these disasters where you know the political forces just couldn't get it done but then face to face with a horrific tragedy a libertarian theology is you know wait until there's a disaster and then and then maybe business will whine and i'm glad the guy in bangladesh was arrested and you know i've expressed you off air that i think we

should bring the death penalty for some of these people who you know if this was in china and he had done something you know we look at these mining accidents in china where they seized the company and they actually put people in jail and then bob what's his name ago and massey massey mines should be put given the death penalty twenty twenty some odd miners die in. plenty of warning that i was going to get if we see culpability there i mean there's blood on his hands i mean i mean it's unfortunate but this is what has to be done to disagree you know in an article published in the chicago tribune over the weekend this is fast and sandra day o'connor suggested that taking on bush v gore the supreme court taking on bush v gore was a mistake she said he took the case and decided that it's time when it was still a big election issue maybe the court should have said we're not going to take it by turns out the election authorities in florida hadn't done a real good job there kind of messed it up and probably the supreme court added to the problem at the end today but the reality is that the court the supreme court in

florida had ordered a statewide recount it was ongoing it would have been done in about a week and a half had the sort of u.s. supreme court not stopped it by taking this case and at the end of the day one year later when this news consortium the new york times usa today worship was actually counted all the ballots in florida the new york times concluded quote with all the ballots have been reviewed under any of sub and single standards which was all of the standards that were used hanging chads do chads pregnant chads people chads with them and combined with the results of an examination of over votes mr gore would have won by a very narrow margin so your thoughts. you know president. how different the world would be i think that you know sandra day o'connor has you know always been uncomfortable with bush speak or as part of her legacy and i'm jeff toobin talked about it in the nine you know she sort of reluctantly signed on

into this this decision of kennedy is of equal protection and i think it's been weighing on her she's a moderate republican i'm she feels that the party has moved drastically and i think you know she's very concerned that it's part of her legacy you know. made his chops and republican party back in the sixty's standing outside polling places. in arizona around phoenix in mostly native american communities he's a very tall guy and very very large and at that time and very imposing basically threatening people you know confronting them as. if those three guys yeah those three guys and that one got everyone arabs yeah yeah the one guy yeah same same kind of thing actually and although fox news turned that into all but this is this is this is how did rehnquist brings sandra day o'connor along on this i mean was he as he was it was all the way was was not his decision as chief justice. to respond to the new york times their own recount or their assessment of what

a recount was memory if memory serves about a dozen independent publications went out and tried to do the same thing in each case bush won it but a case there well there's a cat to that actually and this was the headline of the new york times and the caviar was if the three counties that gore had originally sued to have recounted which was dade broward and one other if those three counties had only been recounted bush would have won and in fact that was the headline of the new york times article what i just read he was buried in paragraph seventeen and when and when the publisher of the new york times was asked why did you bury the story he said because it was three weeks after nine eleven and we did not want our president to be viewed as illegitimate even though he was i mean we would say i'm a little concerned about people whether it's summer day o'connor any any politician who is sending most of their time trying to think about their legacy and that's not the reason why they were given the position in the first place. at the time they

felt it was least some of them felt it was the right thing to do and five of them did well you know something you guys have a group called move on. don a long time ago and betty you can't pick my shoes i think we did learn from and al gore made this you know he said george bush is my president too even though he knew what the numbers were. not everybody knew. that number one sandra day o'connor was never considered a heavyweight jurist she was pretty much a symbolic pick that president reagan was warned that in the legislature in her political career arizona she was not a true conservative to it's it's very interesting that that the day that that report was released was also the same day that dominican plane crashed in fell out of the sky in queens and so that it's like it completely you know wiped out the news and you asked why did the new york times bury the lead because if you read the new york times style guide they are supposed to bury the lead many are not

black many article i've ever read the new york times you have to dig like six or seven graphs deep before you figure out what the point is i'll go with that ok ron wyden and lisa murkowski of introduced a bill to require super pacs to reveal their funding. this was you know in bush v or in me in citizens united i think the eight to one part of the ruling was we think this will work if all the organizations are transparent what's wrong with transparency that's nothing wrong with transparency i think but part one of the problems with you know short sighted political. gamesmanship as far as you know we want to know who your donors are you know revealing to us i'm sure no but you know it would be with his that i could you know in massachusetts a few years ago they they wanted to get mitt romney's arms so they pass some legislation remember what it was actually what it was and then as soon as deval patrick came into office they had to turn around and undo it ok you know i think

you're wonderful to go to college and i sneak out because so let's go is you know transparency here is trans partisan what you know the thing is it's not that doesn't always work that way absent crews out to do shoots and have my people accosted by people on the left and say who's your donor and so we told them where we can where you can find our donors and we asked where their hours are go to our website. go to their web site you can find the donors. so it could cut both ways and i think it's an admirable effort and i think that transplant the could go a long way in employing thing in how money can influence politics but i think we see that we've seen that you know a lot of right wing organizations still pour a lot of money into politics it had not that much of an effect but what about george soros in the in this with should we know about rick i think. if you really want to tackle the influence of money in politics it's going to actually take constitutional amendment i agree to amend to work plus there besides i would

be very very upset if if they moved to overturn the principles of. verses alabama state of alabama went after the. donors demanded the list but the court said no this would have a chilling effect on the politics because there would be subject to intimidation and i agree with that. thought provoking ok thank you all for being with us and thank you. coming up natural gas is getting all the hype in the mainstream media but the real boom is in renewable energy after the break we'll talk to an environmental journalist warm keek about the emerging clean energy market what our government can do to make sure that it remains competitive.

you know sometimes you see this story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you say you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture. potentially deadly blizzard taking aim for the northeast it's expected to hit stunning in a few hours from new york to maine we have team coverage of the storm. but what we're watching is the very heavy snow moving into boston proper earlier today it was very sticky you can see it start to become much more powdery down to the bottom line there is still a lot of snow out here a good place for snowball fight. decent it is going to be pretty incredible day

there and even record snowfall throughout much of it might still be slow to be driving a system urgency here exceptional. a little worse if you go through. the white house soup of a. radio guy for a minute. because you've never seen anything like this i'm told. what about the big picture i'm tom hartman coming up in this half hour our county

in new mexico has become the first county in the united states to outlaw gas and oil extraction why did that county choose to fight back against big oil and are more communities across the country planning to do the same thing and bangladesh is one of the poorest countries in the world and so workers are among the most it's lloyd in the world but despite its poverty in third world conditions bangladesh still has more of a backbone or moral compass than the united states at least when it comes to corporate criminals i'll tell you why and i'd still be taking.